Death, Be Not Proud

Questions- 

1.) Personification, and extended metaphors. The speaker is making death out to be like it is a person, an arrogant person, who thinks he is just the bees knees. Death surrounds himself with "friends" like poison and war, as a way to give himself a more powerful reputation, but really all it does is make him about to be arrogant and unnecessary. The point of the personification is to back up the main idea of the poem, and allow the reader to see the truth behind death, and how it is not as big and bad as people make it out to be.

2.) The speaker makes death out to be arrogant and cocky, by making death a person, he brings up the unattractive personality traits that death has, such has the belief that he is "high and mighty", and the things death surrounds himself with that make him seem worse than he truly is. I believe that the speakers motives were mostly persuasive, he is trying to persuade the readers to stand up against death, because he himself is afraid of it, but he is to frightened to fight against it alone.

3.) The speaker is simply afraid of death, attacking deaths character and trying to persuade others to not be afraid of death is the only way he can fight his own fear. Unfortunately, no matter how arrogant death may be it is inevitable, which the speaker is having trouble accepting. He brings up suicide and the order of a king as a way to explain how easy death can be, making its cocky attitude unimportant. But the hidden truth in line 9 where that is shown, is that death may come by choice but it comes very easily and sometimes quickly, whether it is by choice or by someones Else's order. Which is another frightening truth that is hard to accept..

4.) The sonnet sticks with the Italian form for the most part, the rhyme scheme changes in the last two lines, which adds elements from the Shakespearean sonnet. There are also interesting rhymes within the poem, that are unlike most of usual sonnets. The combination of the forms, and the break from the typical rhyme scheme represent the speakers hesitation towards his topic, he is passionate about it, but he is also fearful of it. He wants the readers to believe that he is strong enough to face death without fear, but the truth is he is more frightened of it than most.

Explication- 

"I am not afraid of death." A very common phrase, but who truly means it? People try and be strong, fight death like it is not as scary as it may seem, but the truth is, it is inevitable. Which ever way it comes, whether quickly, or slowly, it is coming, and it is frightening.

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;" 


The major theme of this poem is fear, fear of death and how it comes. The Speaker does not face his fear, he looks at death as the enemy, and throws allegations at it as if it were a human who thinks they are better than everyone else. This is a very common approach towards dealing with a fear, pointing out the weakness of your opponent, or your challenges, in order to give yourself confidence. In the first four lines, the speaker backs up his point with a personification, he turns death into a human, and gives it human qualities, ones that represent the arrogance of death. He then reaches out to his readers stating " For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow", He is trying to tell people that death is not as great as they think, but in a way he is reassuring this to himself more than others.

He questions the importance of death "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men," Meaning that death is not as important as it may feel it is, because some people just commit suicide, or order others to be killed, or are accidentally killed. All of which could be without a care in the world. But this again reinforces the fear within the speaker. Death is all around us, and it could happen, and come from any which way. Which why is it something to be feared? And it is not a fear that you can overcome, it is something that everyone lives with and try's to avoid until the day they learn the word.

"One short sleep past, we walk eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

The only way to win a fight against death (which can never truly happen) is by getting people to fight with you. "Strength in numbers" That is is approach that the speaker is taking, and hoping will help defeat the evil monster (fear) that lies in his mind. But acknowledging the fear is the only thing that will help the speaker. There are other things that he claims death surrounds himself with, such as "poison" and "war" that also frighten the speaker, but that is not something he would ever admit. He himself has pride as well, just like he claims death does. A person filled with pride refuses to say they are afraid, instead the fight it, attack it, ban against it, until it eventually gets the best of them. Especially something as inevitable as death.

The form is for the most part an Italian sonnet, but it changes in the end, and combines with a Shakespearean form. The rhyming pattern also is unlike one of a normal sonnet, with words that don't directly rhyme. This inaccurate form represents the speakers hesitation, he wants to be strong and fight against this huge force, but the minor differences in the form represent the uneasiness of the speaker.

We are all afraid of death, fighting it will only make it more frightening. "I'm not afraid of death" will only make you more afraid. Accepting the fear is the first step to accepting that life doesn't last forever. And we should spend our days blaming death, we should spend them living, because once we're dead that option is gone. We must set aside our own pride, and live until we must die.